Central Catholic boys basketball team rallies past Emmaus

Abdur-Rahkman converts 3-point play in final seconds to lift Vikings to 16th straight win.

February 09, 2013|By Stephen Miller, Of The Morning Call

For 31 minutes, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman endured one of his worst offensive nights of the season.

Everywhere he dribbled, an Emmaus defender hounded him, with a couple more ready to help. When he created separation against the Green Hornets, his shots would not fall.

In the final minute, Central Catholic went to Abdur-Rahkman two more times. He used those chances to wipe away the frustrations of the first three-plus quarters.

Down two points and needing to go the length of the court with 8.7 seconds to play, the Vikings wanted to find Abdur-Rahkman in space. They succeeded, hitting him with an inbounds pass as he ran from left to right.

He did the rest, driving up the floor and into the paint for a game-tying layup on which he was fouled. Abdur-Rahkman dropped in his free throw to complete a three-point play with three seconds to go as Central Catholic rallied for a 52-51 in its Lehigh Valley Conference boys basketball finale Saturday.

The game carried no postseason implications for Central Catholic. The Vikings (20-2 overall, 12-2 LVC) had already won the West Division title and secured the No. 1 seed for the league playoffs.

Central Catholic did, however, take the floor against the Green Hornets (11-11, 9-5) carrying a 15-game winning streak. That streak started after the Vikings suffered a 66-48 home loss to Emmaus on Dec. 21.

The streak would have ended Saturday had Abdur-Rahkman not delivered in the clutch. He shot 2-for-11 from the field in the first three quarters and was 3-for-15 heading into the game's final minute. He connected on his final two shots, scoring five points in the last 17.6 seconds.

"I thought he did a tremendous job of staying with the game and mentally fighting through some tough plays," Central Catholic coach Dennis Csensits said. "I give Emmaus a lot of credit. They showed him a lot of respect, and whenever he caught the ball, their defense was really stacked against him."

Central Catholic trailed 49-45 with 54 seconds to go before completing its comeback. Mike Kammerer (10 points) found Jean Lee Baez (21 points, nine rebounds) for a layup to cut the deficit in half, and the Vikings forced a turnover on Emmaus' ensuing inbounds pass. Jimmy Vaughan then found Abdur-Rahkman for a game-tying layup on which Abdur-Rahkman was fouled.

Abdur-Rahkman missed his and-1 chance and watched Emmaus take one more lead when Nate Feiertag (team-high 19 points) hit two free throws with 8.7 seconds to go. When Abdur-Rahkman converted his second crack at a three-point play on Central's last possession, he gave the Vikings their first lead since late in the third quarter.

"No shots were falling [earlier], and I found my teammates," Abdur-Rahkman said. "Then they looked to me at the last seconds of the game."

Emmaus had one final chance to pull out a win, but a running 3-pointer from Derek Tannous fell short. It ended a disappointing Senior Night for the Green Hornets. Earlier in the afternoon, Freedom beat Liberty to end Emmaus' chance to earn the wild-card berth for the LVC tournament.

Central Catholic will head into that tournament confident after beating every team in the league at least once this season. The Vikings will face No. 4 seed Liberty in one LVC semifinal Wednesday night at Easton Middle School.